And so to the fairytale of the Man Booker longlist. The Marrying of Chani Kaufman is Eve Harris’ first novel. It’s published, not by an imprint of any of the big houses, but by a little press in Scotland, and it’s been longlisted for one of the world’s most prestigious
In which Eleanor Catton demonstrates that a good story, well told, is a pleasure that holds its own against many a modern literary fad. An opium-addled half-dead prostitute, a wily and unprincipled metaphorical gold digger, a completely dead literal gold digger, a wily and unprincipled ship’s captain, forged signatures and
Colm Tóibín, a writer of great skill and fearsome literary reputation, has been longlisted for the Booker Prize for a third time. The Blackwater Lightship and The Master both made it to the shortlist. The Testament of Mary is a slim volume of well-crafted prose on a subject too vast
TransAtlantic is a tale of Ireland and America. Two airmen exorcise their terrible experiences in the first world war by rebuilding a Vimy and flying it across the Altantic to Ireland. A young woman leaves Ireland to build a new life in America. Frederick Douglass travels to Ireland to elicit
The multi-voiced narrative is clearly IN this year. Donal Ryan, Colum McCann and now Ruth Ozeki. I’m not reading the longlist in any particular order – maybe the books in the pile shuffle themselves round at night, like toys after the children have gone to bed, choosing their neighbours on
Donal Ryan is not about to give up writing. This is his first novel, he’s already written his second and he’s just been longlisted for the Man Booker. The Spinning Heart is set in a small Irish community that’s been devastated by the financial crisis. A new development of houses
A Novel of Beauty and Fire Set against the enclosure acts, when common lands were enclosed for the benefit of the landowner, Harvest tells the story of a small community in the process of destruction. Life in the village has always been predicated upon the inhabitants working together, sowing, harvesting, grazing their